The Honda Civic Tour – August 15, 2010
Paramore can certainly draw hordes of teenagers, pre-teen siblings, AND their parents to Meadowbrook…but can they convince you to buy a car?
The 10 year strong Honda Civic Tour combines big screen commercials, capsule lessons on credit, and an earth-friendly vibe…to sell scooters.
The tour also notably pushes social technology with a text shortcode and an
on-stage scrolling text message board. This made for captivating entertainment in the downtime between sets. A hapless Justin Bieber (whose own concert event was at the Palace that same night) received no mercy from this ruthless mob.
Opening act (and music scene newcomer) Kadawatha is getting a good deal of pre-album press which mentions that singer/songwriter Daniel is Sri Lankan, so I’ll do the same. The band is essentially what you’d get if you gave H.I.M. a positive outlook, fronted by M.I.A. in a hoodie (if you gave her the voice of the singer from Sensefield). It’s sentimental melodic stuff with swooping vocals that are equal parts competent and tiresome, depending on your ears. There’s also a tone of mysticism to the band’s image that will strike you as either quaint or creepy.
New Found Glory (headlined the tour in 2003) are pop/post-punk lifers, and
provided a rather ordinary round of “this is what Green Day hath wrought” mall punk. Some kid in the audience threw their sunglasses onstage between songs, and the guitarist pointed out that he was born with an extra wide head, and as a result could not wear sunglasses designed for ordinary humans. The glasses then went to vocalist Jordan Pundik, further enhancing his Quentin Tarantino tendencies.
I should also mention that their shirtless bass player was a few thousand situps short of svelte, and his bouncing right man-boob was a hypnotically amusing distraction.
Big name Canadian duo Tegan & Sara were rather stationary on stage, so their impressive team of support staff gave the performance of the night – tuning, capo-ing and swapping off various guitars and mini-Korgs. Theirs was easily the most texturally varied set, and a nicely placed relief from crunchy guitar rock. If you’ve heard them at all, you know what to expect: tuneful, quirky pop with generous doses of cute.
Paramore‘s star treatment was evident from the start, with a black curtain and lunar projections casting silouhettes during a lengthy instrumental opening theme while the audience stood up en masse. Not far away, in the darkness, some shadowed concert-goer lit a pungent spliff. Massive lit digital screens, a David Lee Roth runway ramp center stage, and seizure-inducing lightshows accentuated the rockstar pomp.
Thankfully, the tireless acrobatics of 21 year old, orange-haired singer Hayley Williams‘ provided a transcendent focal point – it was as if a Dr. Seuss character had come to life, commanding us to sing along as she pumped her tiny rocker fist in the name of hybrid engines.
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